Tech Awards Go To Plane De-icing Goo, Headlights

Camera flashcubes of the 1960s, high-definition TVs and the Nicoderm quit-smoking patch have at least one thing in common: Each found a place over the years on R&D Magazine's annual list of the 100 most technologically significant new products.

For 46 years, the Rockaway, N.J.-based publication has bestowed awards to products its editors and outside experts believe represent ''quantum leaps of technological improvement.''

R&D Magazine acknowledges that obvious advances — a cure for cancer, say — are rare. Indeed, the 2008 list of winners, announced Wednesday, lacked consumer blockbusters, but among the acronyms and technical jargon, a few with relevance to everyday life stood out.

Japan's Koito Manufacturing Co. made the list for its LED car headlights, which use less energy, last longer and produce a light that's brighter and more like daylight.

Another automotive winner was the ''Adaptive Airbag'' from Key Safety Systems Inc. in Sterling Heights, Mich. It adjusts how fully car air bags inflate to match the severity of the accident and the weight of the vehicle occupant, potentially reducing air bag injuries.

Environmentally safer and less corrosive fluid for clearing ice from airplanes on the runway also hit the list, as did a high-power battery for hybrid-electric cars.

Wearable technology also seemed to appeal to the judges this year. Lebanon, Ore.-based Entek Membranes LLC won for its breathable, waterproof fabric engineered using nanotechnology, as did Los Alamos National Laboratory's Laser-Weave, a cost-effective way to synthesize inorganic fibers and turn them into ropes and textiles.

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On the Net:

http://www.rdmag.com/awards.aspx